This proposal evolved during public
discussions at the Internet Voting Technology Alliance (IVTA)
in September-November 2000. It recognizes the need for strict voting standards,
with a set of 16 requirements that support fail-safe privacy, verifiable
security and tamper-proof ballots. This set of requirements is technologically
neutral and can be applied to paper, electronic and Internet voting,
exceeding the current requirements for paper-based ballots in the U.S.,
and also those used for electronic voting DRE (Direct Recording Electronic)
machines..

This is the revised version published
in part in THE BELL, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 8, July 2000. The original
HTML version has been downloaded more than 250,000 times over the last
three years. It was first published in the Meta-Certificate Group (MCG)
website and was also presented by invitation at the '99 Black Hat Conference
in Las Vegas, NV.